Shahnaz Savani, PhD

Shahnaz Savani works full time as a Lecturer of Social Work at the University of Houston-Downtown and as an adjunct in the DSW program at Tulane. She holds a PhD in Social Work from Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston. She is a licensed social worker and an experienced practitioner in behavioral and mental health issues. Her research interests focus on mental health awareness/education in low and middle-income countries, suicide prevention/intervention in the global south, particularly Central Asia, closing the treatment gap for mental health care in low-income countries and scaling up mental health services at the community level by training lay personnel to provide evidence-based psychosocial interventions. Dr. Savani teaches an elective course on Suicide Prevention/Intervention at her home university and leads a Study Abroad course on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in India.